I’m about to close on my first home and am planning a camera system. I’m looking for suggestions on the best setup for the following:
1 outdoor camera for the garage and backyard
1 camera/doorbell at the front door
1 indoor camera
Possibly a smart deadbolt
I want the cameras to store footage locally on a server, with alerts sent to my phone. I haven’t fully invested in any smart home ecosystem yet, so I’m open to HomeKit, Google Home, Alexa, or others.
I work as a network engineer, so I don’t mind setting up something more advanced, but I’d like the final setup to be user-friendly enough for my girlfriend. Budget is around $1,000, but I’m willing to go higher for a solid system.
I work with Ubiquiti gear at my job and have had good experiences with it. I also have a friend who likes his Eufy system, but I’ve seen concerns about their security. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!
I use a combination of Frigate and Home Assistant. My setup includes PoE cameras on an isolated VLAN to avoid them phoning home. Frigate runs on a server with plenty of storage and a dedicated GPU for image recognition, and Home Assistant handles notifications. It’s a bit complicated, but it works well and is mostly self-hosted.
Dragonsecure1 said:
I use a combination of Frigate and Home Assistant. My setup includes PoE cameras on an isolated VLAN to avoid them phoning home. Frigate runs on a server with plenty of storage and a dedicated GPU for image recognition, and Home Assistant handles notifications. It’s a bit complicated, but it works well and is mostly self-hosted.
God. None of that sounds fun at all. Young me would have been all over that setup… I must be getting old.
Dragonsecure1 said:
I use a combination of Frigate and Home Assistant. My setup includes PoE cameras on an isolated VLAN to avoid them phoning home. Frigate runs on a server with plenty of storage and a dedicated GPU for image recognition, and Home Assistant handles notifications. It’s a bit complicated, but it works well and is mostly self-hosted.
God. None of that sounds fun at all. Young me would have been all over that setup… I must be getting old.
It is once you go down the rabbit hole. That said, he made HA sound more complicated than it is. A cheap N100 NUC, a Z-Wave or Zigbee stick, and the Alarmo addon will give you a better and more flexible security system than any of the mainstream services. Add a Reolink NVR for the cameras and you’re golden.
Ubiquiti has a great camera system, but you need to use their cameras. Another option is Synology, which works with almost any camera and offers a lot of flexibility.
Jourdan said:
Ubiquiti has a great camera system, but you need to use their cameras. Another option is Synology, which works with almost any camera and offers a lot of flexibility.
I second Ubiquiti. It’s a beautiful UI with great features. Not too expensive unless compared to Chinese cams with CCP uplinks.
Reolink or Amcrest are good options for PoE cameras. Reolink is often recommended for doorbell cameras, and you can mix and match them since both offer RTSP streams.
I like Reolink for their flexibility. You can turn off cloud access and just use local storage. They offer RTSP and FTP options, which is great for integrating with other systems like Home Assistant.
Aqara might be what you’re looking for. They have indoor and outdoor cameras, a doorbell, and smart locks, all of which integrate well together. You can store footage locally, and it works with multiple ecosystems, including Apple HomeKit.
Williamson said:
I’m about to close on my first home and am planning a camera system. I’m looking for suggestions on the best setup for the following:
1 outdoor camera for the garage and backyard
1 camera/doorbell at the front door
1 indoor camera
Possibly a smart deadbolt
I want the cameras to store footage locally on a server, with alerts sent to my phone. I haven’t fully invested in any smart home ecosystem yet, so I’m open to HomeKit, Google Home, Alexa, or others.
I work as a network engineer, so I don’t mind setting up something more advanced, but I’d like the final setup to be user-friendly enough for my girlfriend. Budget is around $1,000, but I’m willing to go higher for a solid system.
I work with Ubiquiti gear at my job and have had good experiences with it. I also have a friend who likes his Eufy system, but I’ve seen concerns about their security. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!
Check out Home Assistant if you like customizing your setup. You can set up notifications, remote access, and much more. It’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s flexible and you won’t be locked into a specific ecosystem.
Williamson said:
I’m about to close on my first home and am planning a camera system. I’m looking for suggestions on the best setup for the following:
1 outdoor camera for the garage and backyard
1 camera/doorbell at the front door
1 indoor camera
Possibly a smart deadbolt
I want the cameras to store footage locally on a server, with alerts sent to my phone. I haven’t fully invested in any smart home ecosystem yet, so I’m open to HomeKit, Google Home, Alexa, or others.
I work as a network engineer, so I don’t mind setting up something more advanced, but I’d like the final setup to be user-friendly enough for my girlfriend. Budget is around $1,000, but I’m willing to go higher for a solid system.
I work with Ubiquiti gear at my job and have had good experiences with it. I also have a friend who likes his Eufy system, but I’ve seen concerns about their security. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!
Honestly, just get a dog! Best security system out there.